Delivering Democracy Lecture

The word “democracy” is one of the most recognized, venerated, and misunderstood terms in the English language. Its potential, however, has yet to be fully realized because it is routinely distorted, misjudged, and exploited. In order for American democracy to flourish and expand, its origins, evolution, and potency must be interpreted, discussed, and practiced by everyday people, scholars, and visionaries from various walks of life. The Delivering Democracy Lecture provides a platform for innovative, solution-oriented speakers to present their major intellectual and new idea-based statements on participatory democracy.

ANDERSON COOPER

Award-winning journalist, author, and media icon, Anderson Cooper, will be the distinguished 2015 lecturer. Cooper is one of the most respected and influential individuals of our time. He is courageous, principled, consummate in his professionalism, and goes beyond the headlines with his in-depth reporting and investigations. Cooper is a social justice advocate and philanthropist who has supported many causes including civil and human rights, HIV and AIDS research, bullying, sexual abuse, and children’s health in emerging and expanding democracies.

Anderson Cooper anchors CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°, a provocative nightly newscast that goes beyond the headlines with in-depth reporting and investigations from multiple points of view.

Since the start of his career in 1992, Cooper has covered nearly all-major news events around the world, often reporting from the scene. He spent more than a month along the U.S. Gulf Coast covering the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has returned more than 20 times to follow the reconstruction progress. Cooper has reported from Afghanistan and Iraq, covered the ongoing violence in Mexico, the bombings in London and the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, anchored much of CNN's live coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City in 2005 and traveled to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami in 2004. During most of 2007 and 2008, Cooper traveled around the world for Planet in Peril, a high definition documentary about issues threatening the planet, its inhabitants and its natural resources. Most recently, he has extensively covered the conflicts in Syria and Egypt, the NSA surveillance programs, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Sandy Hook shootings and the destruction from Typhoon Hayian in the Philippines.
 

Cooper has played a pivotal role in CNN’s political and election coverage as part of the “Best Political Team on Television.” He has anchored from conventions and moderated several presidential debates, including the Republican debate in 2012. In addition to his shows on CNN, Cooper is also a regular correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes. Prior joining CNN, Cooper was an ABC News correspondent and host of the network's reality program The Mole. Cooper anchored the off-beat overnight newscast World News Now, and was a correspondent for World News Tonight as well as 20/20. He joined ABC from Channel One News, a school television network seen in more than 12,000 classrooms nationwide, where he served as chief international correspondent. During that time, he reported and produced stories from conflicts in Bosnia, Cambodia, Haiti, Israel, Myanmar, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, and South Africa.

In Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival, Cooper offers an up-close view of the most harrowing crises of his time. Along with sharing his personal history, he takes readers behind the scenes of cataclysmic events and to war-torn countries, showing profound impact they have had on his life. Dispatches from the Edge topped the New York Times bestseller list and other bestseller charts.

Cooper and Anderson Cooper 360° have won numerous major journalism awards. He helped lead CNN's Peabody Award winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina and DuPont award winning coverage of the 2004 tsunami. Additionally, Cooper has been awarded eight Emmy Awards, an Edward R. Murrow award and the GLAAD Media Vito Russo Award in 2013.

Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and he also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi.

AWARDS